Lambs & Grass Cupcakes

My cake and cupcake orders have calmed down over the last few months and needless to say that when I was approached for an order recently I couldn't say no! Even more so, the order was for the 1st birthday party of one of the little girls that I babysit, Ellie!

Ellie's Mum, Claire, sent me an e-mail with a few photos of what she was looking for and a few specifications of what she wanted. The request list was for cupcakes that looked like little pink lambs, some with some grass and a few mini cupcakes with some pink frosting for the little birthday girl! I later learned that Miss Ellie is notorious for taking her pink lamb everywhere with her hence the pink lamb cupcakes.

The mission was on and I have to say I am so delighted with how they turned out! Half of the cupcakes were carrot and the other half were vanilla.

For any cupcake/cake orders or inquiries, please contact novicegoddess@hotmail.com.

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The Pioneer Woman's Carrot Cake

I LOVE the Pioneer Woman's blog! LOVE IT! Don't usually go 24 hours without checking it! If you haven't been.. GO NOW! (by clicking here). Naturally, I am a little more partial to the cooking section of her blog but the rest of it is amazing as well. 

After having gotten over the slight disappointment with some of the feedback concerning the Detroit Red Wings cake, I knew that for my next order, I needed a different kind of recipe. I needed a recipe that could be made in a sheet cake pan but that would taste delicious and moist and still look good. So naturally, I did a quick search for 'carrot sheet cake' (since the order was for a carrot cake) and was ironically brought to the Pioneer Woman's post for Sigrid's Carrot Cake. There is the most adorable story behind this cake and you should definitely read it on her blog. As you all know, I love the connections that people make to certain foods in relation to people they know and this recipe is no exception. 

Anywhoo, I made the recipe in an 18' x 22' x 1 1/2' cake pan (which I learned was too big to fit in my own oven! Thank you J for letting me take over your kitchen! You're my hero!!!) and baked a double batch of the recipe for about 45-50 minutes. It turned out amazingly and I was so happy. I once again learned the hard way that I can't make a cake from start to finish in one day. I get exhausted and then become irritated and frustrated and I pretty much throw a tantrum like this (click here) (once again, thank you J for not kicking me out of your house that night!!!! <3). Lessons learned and put aside, the cake turned out wonderfully... Super moist, not too overdone and it was enjoyed by all (ULTIMATE CAKE SUCCESS!!!!!).I am a bad blogger because I don't think I took any pictures of the finished cake. I have some process pictures at home but I don't have the finished product (again, please refer to the temper tantrum video found here). I'm so sorry!

BUT wait... there's more! I decided that since the Pioneer Woman says how versatile this recipe is that I would try and turn these babies into cupcakes (who here doesn't know about my love of cupcakes?). A single batch of this recipe will perfectly make 24 cupcakes. I baked mine for about 45 minutes or until they were light-ish brown on top. I'm not quite sure why but the top of the cake always bakes up looking a little lumpy. I personally don't mind it because it ends up looking like it's got oats in it too (it's always a good mind trick to make the brain think it's eating something 'healthy'). Really though, for me it's not an issue because there is always icing on top of the cake so you don't see it. 

And without further delay, allow me to introduce you to the most perfect cupcake of my existence complete with cream cheese frosting! 

I hope you all are having a wonderful week! 

Keep smiling :)

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